An Initial Assessment of the Frequency of Maple Crop Failure in the U.S.
Some seasons sometimes produce a bountiful crop of maple syrup. In other years producers are considerably less lucky. Periodic failures of the maple crop happen.
Periodical: Maple Syrup Digest
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Effects of the January 1998 Ice Storm on Stem and Root Carbohydrate Reserves, Radial Growth and Tree Vigor in Two Vermont Sugarbushes
The ice storm of January 1998 damaged well over 17 million acres of forest in the northeast, including nearly 1 million acres of forests in Vermont (Figure 1, Miller-Weeks and Eagar 1999, Vermont Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation 2000). Many of the areas which experienced damage were active sugarbushes, with severe damage to tubing systems in affected zones.
Maple Research & Outreach Professional Profiles “Dr. Tim” Perkins
Tim Perkins was born and raised in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. As a youth, he, along with his seven siblings (5 brothers, 2 sisters) and father, helped on their grandfather’s (and later Uncle’s) farm in Westmore, Vermont. His chores included gathering sap from buckets, carrying firewood, and, of course, tasting syrup.
Ask Proctor: Tiny Bubbles
Maple producers using tubing often observe bubbles emerging from the tree within the spout or first few inches of tubing when the sap is running. If the spout is not seated properly, leaks may occur.T hese are most noticeable as rapidly moving streams of small or large bubbles. At other times, these are not leaks, however repeated or overly aggressive attempts at seating spouts to make the bubbles stop can create leaks that further attempts at spout seating will only make worse.
Innovations in Maple Sap Collection Systems: Reducing Clogging in 3/16” Tubing
Natural vacuum created in3/16” tubing has been a boon for many maple producers in stands where sufficient grade allows it to function properly. The column of sap moving downhill in 3/16” tubing doesn’t readily allow air bubbles to pass, but rather pushes them out of the system, creating a vacuum (Wilmot 2014, Perkins and van den Berg 2018). Unfortunately, several years of use have demonstrated that 3/16” tubing systems can be prone to clogging by microbial masses (Wilmot 2018, Perkins and vanden Berg 2019), especially at fittings (Childs 2019) where the internal diameter is greatly reduced.
Ask Proctor: How does Sap Move Near Tap Wounds
Because of the vertical orientation of the dominant anatomical feature of wood (vessels and fibers), sap within the stem of maple trees moves primarily in a vertical direction, either upward during as the tree is freezing/uptake phase or downward (mostly) during the thawing/exudation phase. When a tree is tapped, a zone of impermeable wood forms around the wood.
Ask Proctor: Why do I sometimes make light-colored syrup at the very end of the season?
The typical trend over a sugaring season is for syrup to start out light in color and get progressively darker, eventually ending up with very dark (and strong or off-tasting) syrup at the end. While there can be some temporary excursions up and down in syrup light transmittance, the natural progression is from light syrup early on to dark syrup near the finish. However, occasionally a syrup producer finds that right as the season is concluding the syrup color goes up dramatically and wonder why this happens.
A 20-Year Record of Syrup Production at UVM Proctor Maple Research Center from 2004-2023
The University of Vermont (UVM) Proctor Maple Research Center (PMRC) in Underhill, Vermont, has along history of research on sap production. Maple syrup has been made at PMRC since shortly after its founding in 1946, in part for research and in part for demonstration. Syrup production has always been an important component of the work of PMRC as it keeps the faculty and staff aware of the issues involved in sap collection and syrup production, it provides more of a “buy in” from producers when they understand that we face the same hurdles as they do each season, and the revenue gained from the sale of maple syrup helps to fund the operation.
Net-Zero Maple Syrup
An examination of why and how maple sugarmakers can make their operations carbon-neutral.
The Next Maple Marketing Campaign
Over two-thirds of consumers say that living a more sustainable lifestyle is important to them. Eco-friendly and Fair Trade claims are attractive to consumers, but the marketplace is still trying to clarify what lies behind these claims and if shoppers really follow through with their interests in the form of purchases. Consumer sentiment research looked at retail sales from 2017-2020 and showed that consumer spending on products with environmental, social and governance (ESG) claims grew at a faster rate than products without such claims (Am et al., 2023).